<WHAM> Hiccup winced as Astrid gave him yet another solid punch to the arm for some mistake on his part before melting into her usual follow-up kiss.
"And that's for everything else," Astrid added with her usual warm and teasing smile.
From a distance away watching how his two new friends acted as a couple it was all Naruto could do not to sigh.
"Feh, they're getting all mushy again," Ruffnut commented from beside him in disgust as the pair mucked out the dragon stables. "What's with the look shorty? If you've got hopes for Astrid, get in line. Half the boys in the village want a piece of that, with Snotlout in the lead. Not that any of them have a hope in Nifelheim of winning her. Poor girl's so besotted with Hiccup it's sad."
"Nothing like that Ruff, they just remind me of home," Naruto responded, not really thinking about what he was saying.
"They do?" Ruffnut asked, curious as to what about the two most famous teens in the village reminded their newest addition of his old life.
"Yeah. Well, not the kissing and being mushy stuff, but the rest of it. Sakura-chan used to smack me around when I would say something she didn't like. And Baachan was always hitting Ero-sennin for being a pervert," Naruto explained.
If Naruto had a better understanding of both the female mind and subtle signals in body language he might have sensed the danger as Ruffnut casually asked, "Sakurachan? Weird name. Who's that?"
"Sakura was my teammate in Team 7 along with Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke," Naruto explained as he got back to helping with mucking the stalls.
"Like Tuff, 'n Snot, 'n the rest of us are a team riding our dragons, but with your weird neen-ja stuff?" Ruffnut prodded.
"Kinda. In Konoha, and everywhere else that had ninja I guess, they always put you on a team with three Genin and a Jounin-sensei until you advanced in rank. We didn't really specialize in anything the way the dragon riding teams here do," Naruto explained, somewhat erroneously. After all his team had clearly been a combat team, while Shikamaru's team had been geared toward interrogation and capture, and Hinata's team had been specialized for recon.
Then again, Kakashi had never bothered to explain that to his students so it wasn't really Naruto's fault that he missed out on the dynamics of the rest of his graduating class.
"So did this Sakura of yours look like Astrid?" Ruffnut asked getting things back to what caught her attention.
Naruto chuckled at that question. "Nah. Baachan looks a little like Astrid might look in a few years. Nah, actually you look closer to her. Your hair is lighter like hers. Sakura has green eyes like Hiccup's but her hair is bright pink-" Naruto described only to be interruped by a sudden guffaw from Ruffnut.
"Pink? Pink?! A person with pink hair? You're pulling my leg," she declared between chuckles.
Naruto glared at the Viking girl for a moment before conceding her point that Sakura's har would seem strange here where everyone seemed to be blond or a redhead of some sort. More exotic hair colors like pink and purple, while not exactly common back home were seen occasionally. In fact, Naruto's own blond was similarly rare back in Konoha, while it seemed totally common in Berck. He waited for Ruff's guffaws to die down before he added, "I'm serious, her hair was pink. She's had pink hair since we were all kinds starting the Academy together. In fact I think that's what first caught my attention about her. She was so bright and... different than everyone else."
His choice of words stopped Ruffnut's laughter cold as she asked, "Caught your attention?"
Naruto smiled fondly to himself, lost in memories as he replied, "Yeah. I used to have the biggest crush on her in the Academy and when we started out as a team together. I'd ask her out all the time and she's smack me in the head the way Astrid smacks Hiccup on the arm."
"She did, huh?" Ruffnut asked her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Yeah," Naruto answered dreamily. "She'd never say yes. She was always trying to get Sasuke to go out with her instead, but I knew if I just kept trying one day she would agree to go out with me-" he added only to be stopped short as he was hit square in the face with a pitchfork full of dragon dung.
"Hey! What was that for?" Naruto demanded as he tried to shake the smell mass out of his hair.
"Nothing," Ruffnut responded coolly. "I guess I wasn't paying attention. Now get back to work runt. I don't have all day to listen to you whine about your girl like some kind of bard. We have real work to do."
Naruto shook his head again, this time in confusion as one of his new friends went from playful to giving him the cold shoulder in a matter of moments. It must have just been one of the those 'girl things' Ero-sennin insisted men weren't supposed to understand.
Meanwhile, Astrid and Hiccup had gome fro being observed to doing the observing as they observed the by-play between Naruto and Ruffnut.
"He still has no clue she likes him, does he?" Astrid asked with a shake of her head.
"Nah. I don't think they do things the same way in his home village. He thinks Ruffnut is just being friendly," Hiccup commented.
"Hmph, she needs to take it like a Viking and just stake her claim. Naruto has to be the only man here with his head in the clouds more than you," Astrid commented with a wry smile.
"Yeah...Hey!" Hiccup agreed before realizing just what he was saying. She silenced and protest from her boyfriend with a quick kiss to the cheek before moving off to talk to Ruffnut. Clearly the girl needed some advice on taking what was rightfully hers.
